Lecture 12: Plant Chemistry 2 Flashcards
What are some physical defenses that plants use against herbivores?
Thorns and trichomes
What are some chemical defenses that plants use against herbivores?
Distasteful or toxic compounds
What are some examples of chemical defenses that plants use against herbivores?
Cavanine, Nicotine, and Glucosinolates
What is cavanine?
A compound that resembles arginine and gets incorporated into the protein and does not fold properly and causes the insect to die. This is because of the different chemistry from arginine.
What are glucosinolates?
A compound that inhibits electron transport chain in cellular transportation(cytochrome). It converts cyanide when digested.
What is jasmonic acid?
A hormone that regulates herbivore defense. It is increased in response to physical damage and decreases levels of salicylic acid.
What is nicotine(neonicotinoid)?
A neurotoxin that at low dose is a stimulant and at a high dose is a depressant. However, it can cause paralysis and eventually death.
What are some physical defenses that plants use against pathogens?
Their plant cuticle and cell walls
What is the cell wall reinforcement?
This is when the plant was attacked by a pathogen and does this to protect itself. Thus, it adds lignin to harden the cell walls.
What is hypersensitive response?
A rapid host cell death to limit and isolate infection. Think of the spots in the leaves of the plants.
What are some chemical defenses that plants use against pathogens?
RNA interference, hypersensitive response, cell wall reinforcement
Explain the RNA interference that plants use against pathogens.
It is gene silencing where the Dicer enzyme recognizes foreign DNA cuts into pieces and turns into miRNA. Then, it takes the miRNA and hands it to RISC to use as a template to look for viral RNA that matches. Once it finds it, it binds with viral DNA and blocks transition and argonaute proteins cuts matching viral RNA.
What is salicylic acid?
A hormone that regulates pathogen defenses where it increases in response to infection and decreases levels of jasmonic acid.
What are some plant leaves (a-g)?
- asteraceae
- fabaceae
- apiaceae
- cucorbitaceae
- liliaceae
- rosaceae
- orchidaceae
What is asteraceae?
Composite flowers (or inflorescence). Some examples are sunflowers, daisies, dandelions, and artichoke
What is fabaceae?
Legumes. It is associated with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, crop rotation to add natural fertilizer. Some examples are beans, peas, lentil, peanuts, alfalfa.
What is apiaceae?
Carrots, celery, parsely, anise, and cumin. Some species may be phototoxic which cause chemical skin irritation when exposed to UV light and look like suburn.
What is cucurbitaceae?
Gourds. Some examples include squash, zucchini, pumpkin, and watermelon.
What is liliaceae?
Lilies and tulips
What is rosaceae?
Roses, pomes, drupes, strawberry, raspberry, loquat
What is orchidaceae?
Orchids and vanilla
What is poaceae?
Grass, cereals, sugarcane.
What is zingiberaceae?
Turmeric, ginger
What is brassicaceae?
Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage
